Self Employment Pay

[Rich Rule]

27 minutes ago, gdh said:

I said a couple of hours either way. Obviously if you're doing 17 hours you would want more (although if it's a one off these things happen, I've been stuck working after breakdowns). 

 

I just expect a reasonable amount of give and take, it's part of being self-employed. If in doubt I bill by the hour.

I have been stuck for 6plus hours after a truck shot a Caliper and it took that long to replace the parts and repair.  Two guys onsite with the company owner.  January, wet miserable and a Friday to boot. 

We got paid the 20 quid OT for each hour after 8.  It was insisted we took the money as he said it wasn’t our fault we had to be back late due to mechanical problems.  
 

I guess it is a case of moral fibre.  He offered the money, it wasn’t our fault.  We appreciated the offer and IIRC rounded it down as a gesture from us.  After all, it was a quite an expensive day.  He was a good bloke to work for.

[Joe Newton]

I don't get this attitude that you caen charge a day rate and expect to fuck off at 2pm.

 

I rarely get job and knock work, when I do it's usually small companies or other subbies doing their own jobs. 

 

The majority of my work is with established companies. If I can get the job done and squeeze in a fit in then everyone's happy. I charge a decent day rate and more often than not I'll hit over target, so I continue to get used. Symbiosis. 

[Steve Bullman]

I worked for a variety of clients over the years and it always varied what was expected of me. One client I would regularly knock out the job by 11 and he would send me on my way. Another we would work till 4 regardless...there would always be another job round the corner. 

 

my most regular client I charged hourly, this suited me the best as I always had stuff to do(such as arbtalk admin), suited me better to get done and get home to do my own work rather than stay for the whole day just to make up a day rate.

 

 

[eggsarascal]

2 hours ago, gdh said:

I said a couple of hours either way. Obviously if you're doing 17 hours you would want more (although if it's a one off these things happen, I've been stuck working after breakdowns). 

 

I just expect a reasonable amount of give and take, it's part of being self-employed. If in doubt I bill by the hour.

I give up.

[gdh]

2 hours ago, Rich Rule said:

I have been stuck for 6plus hours after a truck shot a Caliper and it took that long to replace the parts and repair.  Two guys onsite with the company owner.  January, wet miserable and a Friday to boot. 

We got paid the 20 quid OT for each hour after 8.  It was insisted we took the money as he said it wasn’t our fault we had to be back late due to mechanical problems.  
 

I guess it is a case of moral fibre.  He offered the money, it wasn’t our fault.  We appreciated the offer and IIRC rounded it down as a gesture from us.  After all, it was a quite an expensive day.  He was a good bloke to work for.

That's the way I like to work, bit of flexibility from both parties. Too many people try and take advantage of day rates which is why I would only do them with people I get on with.

[JonnyRFT]

22 hours ago, Treespasser said:

Hi all,

 

I just wanted to post a thread to get others' opinions on this topic, as I'm sure there's variation out there.

I've been a sub contracting climber for 8 years now (and consultant for a short while) here in the UK and have never come to a conclusion.

 

As a self employed climber or groundsman charging 'X' amount as a day rate, you'd obviously get X for the standard 8/9 hours worked that day.

But what if you work 4/5 hours... would you still expect your day rate?

For instance, if you worked hard and got the job done in good time.

(I know this depends on circumstance, such as if my employers job got cancelled last minute, I would not expect X amount if a replacement job couldn't be found)

 

My current main employer normally lays another job on us if we get the main job done in good time, squeezing the most out of us. (This aggravates the sh*t out of me)

 

But also, if you're a self employed consultant working for larger companies, say you book the day off to do a survey they asked you to do and it takes you 2 hours to do the inspection and 1 hour to type it up. Do you charge 3 hours and lose the rest of the day... or charge the whole day because you booked it out for that survey? This happens to me quite a lot.

 

All constructive comments welcome and look forward to reading what other subbies and employers do.

 

Cheers!

 

The way I charge the company I work for is that I add a 4% admin fee to every job which works out to a fair average when the paper work etc. is raised. 
 

For just the assessment on its own is £60 which covers fuel, time travelled and my hourly rate providing the whole assessment is completed within an hour. It’s invoiced separately so the 4% doesn’t apply to assessments. 
 

I keep one day a week free to allow for overruns or if work is completed early then I can book in new jobs without hindering the work already booked in advance with domestic clients.

 

 

 

[gdh]

46 minutes ago, eggsarascal said:

I give up.

I think we might be working for different types of people. ?

[eggsarascal]

34 minutes ago, gdh said:

I think we might be working for different types of people. ?

Nope, most of my work is for a well respected farther and son set up.

[gdh]

Fair enough, just different preferances then. If I go out to do any work it's nearly always people I know so I'm happy to take a hit if they do. I know on a good day we'll both come out well. If I wasn't sure I would bill hourly, nothing wrong with that either.

[Guest]

Seems the simplest way, is to agree to what work the subbie is being booked in for, then everyone knows what to expect. If its a regular subbie who you know and who's skill level you know (which is presumably why you booked him/her), then estimating the time the job takes should be pretty accurate. If the jobs done in 6 hours why should the subbie hang on or do extra for nowt. It;s the same as if you price to take a tree down for a customer for a fixed price and get it done quicker than expected and the customer turns round and says you got it done in less time than estimated so how about cutting x,y and z to fill your day for the no extra cost. We'd all tell them where to go (once we had the cheque)..

If you price the job you take the lion's share and to my mind you carry the risk. If job overruns you suck it up - or put the subbie on a profit share. Too many people want their cake and eat it.